Shimmer
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Both the People and the Leafmen escaped the notice of mud people as they sought solace in the natural world. Maybe in that, they could find common ground.


**Shimmer**

The Leafmen were not of the People, but in many ways, they were their kin.

Such were Holly's thoughts as she stood on the floor of the forest. Mud people tended to associate elves with such places, and it was an association that was mostly accurate. The elves were of the earth, even if their ancestors had taken to the sky. The elves were of the earth, even when now, they lurked beneath it. Elves returned to the forest to complete the Ritual, as did many of the People. The forest was their ancestral home. For the Leafmen, it was their home, period.

And yet they were not of the People. Their society stood apart. Their magic was different. They called mud people "stompers," and held them in similar disdain, but there was no reason to suppose they regarded the People as being any different. Right now, taking in the air (unspoilt air, she reflected, a rarity these days), Holly dared hope they might, but there was no way of knowing. The Leafmen were so different that they were practically extra-dimensional beings, operating on a different 'frequency' than most organisms on Earth. They still existed within traditional four dimensional space, but were 'phased out.' Only through special equipment or sensitive eyes could one see them. And right now, not even the People had a means to communicate with them. They knew they existed. That was all the Leafmen seemed intent on letting her kind know.

She knew she should be getting back. She had done the Ritual, she was "running hot," and she didn't need to give Root another excuse to wayside her. The chances of a "stomper" being in this forest, at this point, at this moment, was next to nil – she wasn't so careless as to not perform a cautionary scan. But even so, she-

…she picked up her pistol as her ears pricked, as she activated her shield. Nothing in this forest bar a mud man with an itchy trigger finger could hurt her. Not even bears, unless they decided to grow wings. Still, instinct demanded caution, and magic demanded use. Something…some _things_ were moving in her direction. Moving very fast, and in her direction. She activated her helmet's zoom function, and activated its motion tracker, filtering out anything moving slower than 100kph. The technology did its job, and soon she saw what she was after.

"Boggans," she murmured.

Boggans. Also not of the People. Also not of the Leafmen, and not even of mud people. Mud people had despoiled the world for centuries, but even that was from ignorance and their general stupidity. Boggans sought to destroy the beauty of the world through pure malicious intent. The Leafmen, by their nature, fought to stop them. It was a balance waged in hundreds of forests across the world. A battle that had waged even before the days of the mud people, and would wage long after they had driven themselves to extinction. It was fortunately a battle that was confined only to the battlefields where the two species resided. Such as now, as via her helmet, she saw a boggan on a crow, chasing a Leafman on his hummingbird. No different in many ways from animals acting out their base instincts. Predator and prey. Kill or be killed. The same instincts that made dwarfs seek gold, pixies sly, and trolls monstrous. The same instinct that made her raise her pistol.

 _What am I doing?_

The Leafmen were no threat to the people, but weren't allies either. Firing a blaster, even on a low setting, might draw in unwanted attention. Not to mention that the crow was innocent. The boggans enslaved their beasts, riding them into war, just as surely as mud people had done with their horses, and still with the creatures they culled to feed their bellies. Even if she hit her target, the crow might fall as well. And yet, if she did nothing, the Leafman would fall. The crow was gaining on him. The boggan was the better rider. If she did nothing, an innocent would die. If she did something, an innocent _could_ die. And that was assuming she could hit it at all.

The boggan closed in. Holly Short, LEPRecon, gritted her teeth. Setting her neutrino blaster to its lowest setting, she fired, a laser beam tearing through the air. Hitting the boggan, incinerating him. Missing the crow by a few feathers. It squawked. The Leafman stopped. And she stood there, fighting the urge to blow off the smoke from her pistol. Because that…that, was damn good shooting, if she dared say so herself. Shooting that she'd have to erase from her helmet's logs before she returned to Haven, but good shooting all the same.

Did the Leafman think so, she wondered? She watched as he came down to her. Watched as his mouth move, yet his voice unheard. Not even her ears could pick it up, or her helmet's technology. But, she hoped he understood. That in her mind, they were kin. Leafmen, ever in shimmer. Elves, so often in shimmer, forced to hide from "stompers." Kin in spirit, if not in blood. She hoped he thought likewise.

But he flew off anyway. To home.

She would have to do the same.


End file.
